The Keys to Life Document

Changing Places consortium member, Pamis, received a well deserved mention in the new learning disabilities strategy, “The keys to life: Improving quality of life for people with learning disabilities”, which was published in June of this year. It is the second national learning disabilities strategy for Scotland.

The Minister for Public Health Michael Matheson said:
“It is essential that services work together to make sure that people with learning disabilities get the right level of support when they are in hospital and have access to the right medical services. Most important, people with learning disabilities should get the same treatment as the general population.
People with profound and multiple learning disabilities face particular challenges in their daily lives. They need simple things such as appropriate toilet facilities. It is simply unacceptable for families to have to change their daughters or sons on toilet floors. That is undignified and unhygienic, and it involves heavy lifting by the carers, which has the potential to cause serious damage to their health. Sometimes families opt to stay at home, with increased isolation and a lack of stimulation as results. That is why one recommendation in the new strategy is to extend the number of Changing Places toilets in Scotland, which are designed to allow access for all. I thank the Profound and Multiple Impairment Service—PAMIS—for the tremendous amount of work that it has done over the years in the area and the work that it intends to do in assisting us to address the issue in the future.” “The new learning disabilities strategy, “The keys to life: Improving quality of life for people with learning disabilities”, was published in June of this year. It is the second national learning disabilities strategy for Scotland, and we are the first part of the United Kingdom to produce a second strategy of that nature.
As a nation, we can be proud of some of the changes that we have brought about in the quality of life for people with learning disabilities since “The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities”, our original learning disability policy, was published in 2000. It was highly successful in shifting the balance of care to support more people to live in their community, and it led to the historic closure of more 1,000 long-stay hospital beds that many people called home for decades. It also led to improved day opportunities and created employment and meaningful activities for those with a learning disability.”The official sponsor of the Changing Places campaign is Aveso Ltd. Aveso hope that its support for the campaign will help it achieve its target of 1000 registered Changing Places toilets within the next three years.